"Germany's upstart Pirate Party has overtaken the Greens to become the third strongest political grouping in the country, according to a new poll. The survey by Forsa for broadcaster RTL showed support for the Pirates, whose platform is based on internet freedom and more direct participation in politics, pushing up to 13 percent and outstripping the Greens for the first time." Not surprising. I have lots of close friends in Germany (especially in the former DDR), and for obvious reasons, I've noticed they tend to have a very firm grasp of concepts like privacy and government spying. The bit about six parties being a lot and troublesome for coalition building made me smile.

Every time I see news about these "pirate" parties I keep thinking that using the word "pirate" in the name is not that good an idea.
Sure, we all know pirates (the swashbuckling kind) are cool but I'm pretty sure that's not the associating most people will make.

I've certainly (shamefully) never taken them seriously because of the name and they should be exactly the kind of party I'd advocate given what's been summarised here.

If I (a great believer in freedom of speech, privacy, an open internet and transparent government) have ignored this party because of the name, then I can only imagine how many other potential voters have been turned off too.

A great shame as scoring votes is a hard enough challenge already - and expensive too!! - without having to create additional hurdles for yourself.